CHAPTER 22
Lacey
“Last morning,” she said, mostly to herself.
“Yeah,” River echoed from her position lying next to her. “Breakfast, and we’re gone.”
“What do you want to do for the rest of the day?” Lacey asked, turning her head toward her girlfriend.
“Oh, I–” River stopped.
“You want to check on the shop, don’t you?”
“I told Cal I’d be there by two just to close down.
She has a romantic night planned with Ashton.
They’re doing the whole baby-making thing, and it takes some of the romance out of it, so she said she’d cover Friday, Saturday, and open Sunday if I could get there by two or three to close.
She needs to get home to set up whatever it is that she wants to set up. ”
“Well, I’m glad they’re making the whole experience as romantic as they can.”
“Yeah, me too,” River said. “Maybe tomorrow night?”
“What’s tomorrow night?”
“No, I meant that maybe tomorrow night, I could come over.”
“Oh,” Lacey uttered and swallowed. “I have a late client. She’s in meetings until six, so she asked me to be there around six-fifteen. I’ll be there until at least eight because she gets a ninety-minute treatment. She’s about an hour away from my place, so–”
“So, no on tomorrow night. That’s okay.”
“Tuesday?”
“Can’t,” River replied. “I’m closing and working on an order for Wednesday morning. I had to put in a special order with a vendor for one of the ingredients, and it’s not going to be there until Tuesday afternoon, or I would’ve started working on it earlier.”
“Wednesday night, I’m supposed to have dinner with my parents, and Thursday night, I have another late client, so maybe Friday.”
“Yeah, maybe,” River replied and put her arms behind her head. “Did you have fun? I mean, this weekend, did you have fun like you wanted?”
That was a loaded question, and River had to know it.
Yes, Lacey had had fun. Remarkably, she’d had a lot of fun.
It just wasn’t fun with River. Since they’d arrived, they had hardly touched, and even then, it had only been in front of the cameras.
They hadn’t kissed good morning or good night.
They definitely hadn’t made love. And while they’d seen each other naked a couple of times, that had been the extent of it.
Even in the shower, they’d hardly touched.
So, no, she hadn’t had the weekend she had been hoping for, but maybe she’d had the weekend that she’d needed.
“I had fun,” she said, keeping it simple. “You?”
“Good. Me too.”
“We should get packed and go out there. We don’t want to miss breakfast. I think Jessie wants one more group thing and then all of us saying goodbye.”
“Goodbye,” River said softly for some reason.
Lacey chose not to address that and slid out of bed. She headed to the bathroom, where she washed her face, brushed her teeth, and pulled her hair back into a ponytail.
“I’m taking a quick shower to help me wake up,” River told her when she walked in a few minutes later, and it was strange because she was wearing a towel around her body.
She must have taken off the clothes she’d slept in after Lacey had gone into the bathroom, but that wasn’t the weird part. River went to turn on the water while holding the towel to her body as if Lacey hadn’t seen her naked just yesterday.
“Yeah, okay. I’ll go get dressed,” Lacey said and walked past her before closing the bathroom door between them.
She knew what River was doing. Silently, River was telling her that she wasn’t hers to see naked anymore.
She wasn’t hers to touch, kiss, or be with in any way that could be considered romantic.
Lacey sighed as she sat on the end of the bed.
She knew they’d have to talk about it, but not right now.
Now, they had to go out there and pretend to be in love while one of them stared across the table at Kennedy Gannon and the other wished she wasn’t about to say goodbye to Cameron Levine.
◆◆◆
“So, how long will it take you two to get home?” Kennedy asked as they all sat around the table.
“Probably a couple of hours,” River replied before she bit into her toast.
Kennedy smiled, and Lacey could only shake her head. Kennedy was smiling and looking at her girlfriend like she thought she was the most adorable woman in the world for how she bit into a piece of toast, but as much as it should’ve bothered Lacey, it didn’t.
“What are you planning on doing the rest of the day?” Cameron asked.
Lacey turned to her when she realized that no one else was answering and that Cameron was talking to her.
“River has to work,” she said.
“Oh,” Cameron replied.
“You’re working on a Sunday?” Kennedy asked.
“I meant you,” Cameron said to Lacey at the same time.
Lacey turned her head back and forth, not sure where to put her focus, but when River turned more to Kennedy to answer her question, Lacey had her answer.
“I don’t know yet. I thought River and I would hang out, but she’s going to work. She needs to close up for her business partner, who has a romantic night planned with her wife.”
Cameron nodded and took a sip of her coffee.
“What about you?” Lacey asked while River continued to talk to Kennedy.
“Nothing. I don’t know. Ken and I haven’t talked about it. Maybe just relax or catch up on some sleep.”
“You didn’t sleep well last night?”
Cameron looked down and shook her head.
“Neither did I,” she shared softly.
Lacey then bit into her final piece of bacon and caught sight of Jessie in the corner, rolling her eyes and motioning to the camera people to lower their cameras.
“So, you’re open normal hours on Sundays?” Kennedy asked River.
“Usually, yeah. Sometimes, I might close early if I have to because I don’t have the staff or because I’m taking a day off, but that’s rare. Sundays are busy days for us. The whole weekend is. We get a lot of foot traffic because of all the surrounding businesses, so people just walk by and…”
Lacey tuned out the rest of what River was saying, not wanting to hear her talk about her shop one more time this weekend.
Even at home, it was practically all River wanted to talk about.
It was this candy or that, how busy they’d been, an issue with someone or something, an order she needed to make, or, really, just about anything related to that store.
Lacey didn’t talk to River much about her own work.
For the most part, she drove places, massaged, made some small talk with the client, and drove again.
That was about it. She supposed it just wasn’t all that interesting to River because River also didn’t ask her about it much outside of the standard ‘how was work’ question she tossed out at the end of the day when they saw each other.
“So, breakfast is over, and the cars are outside. You’re all free to go whenever,” Jessie announced, standing up.
“Over? We haven’t even finished our coffee,” Kennedy said, lifting her cup as if to prove a point.
“Fine. Finish your coffee.”
“Are you setting up outside or something?” Cameron asked.
“No, I’ve given up,” Jessie replied. “You’re not giving off the vibe I needed and have needed this whole weekend, so I’ll make the most with what I’ve got.
We’ll wrap up with the group shot of this breakfast with some music and maybe a message about the charity.
If you two don’t mind, though, I’d love to just get one shot of the two of you telling people how much fun you had this weekend. ”
Jessie looked at Lacey and then at River.
“Oh. Sure,” Lacey said on their behalf.
River just nodded.
“Great. Thanks,” Jessie replied. “I’ll set them up in the living room. Whenever you’re ready.”
“We don’t have to rush,” Kennedy said.
“Yeah, we can hang out for a little while longer,” Cameron added. “We don’t have to be out of here until noon. I heard Jessie talk about it.”
“Noon?” River asked. “I can’t stay until noon. I have to be at work by two.”
“Oh, I don’t mean that we have to stay until noon; just that we could if we wanted to.”
River looked over at Kennedy and said, “I can’t. I would if I could, but Calista needs me there at two.”
“It’s okay,” Kennedy replied.
Lacey looked down at her coffee cup and tried not to be hurt by the fact that River had just turned to Kennedy Gannon and not her.
“Um… Lacey, do you maybe want to do the thing with River for Jessie and then, I don’t know, get in one more game of air hockey before we have to go?” Cameron asked.
Lacey looked up and smiled at her.
“Sure. Is that okay, River? We’ll still be home in plenty of time.”
“Oh, yeah. Totally,” River said. “Want to do the thing for Jessie now?”
“Yeah. I’m done eating.”
They got up from the table, leaving Cameron and Kennedy there, went into the living room, and sat on the sofa, waiting for Jessie to tell them what to say and do.
River’s arm went over the back of the sofa how it used to whenever they snuggled up on the couch at either of their places, but she didn’t touch Lacey’s shoulders.
Lacey, for her part, turned in toward River slightly and placed her hand on River’s thigh, which flinched a bit when she did, but Lacey didn’t remove her hand because they were on camera.
“We had a blast this weekend,” River said, starting them off.
“Lacey?” Jessie asked, her eyes begging Lacey to add something to that.
“Cameron and Kennedy were great. I really enjoyed getting to know… them.”
Jessie’s head practically flopped down. Then, it shook.
“Okay. Thanks,” she told them, sounding utterly defeated. “Why did I have this idea?”
Jessie seemed to be asking herself that question as she walked out of the room, camera people in tow.
“I think we screwed it up,” River said.
“You were fine. I was terrible.”
“That awkward pause probably gave you away.”
“Hey, I tried. I’m not used to being on camera,” Lacey said, smacking River’s thigh playfully before removing her hand entirely.
“Neither am I,” River retorted with a laugh. “At least, I could say a sentence without hesitating.”
“Fine. Fine. You’re better at this than I am.”
Then, Lacey saw two men walking back from down the hallway, carrying bags. Specifically, they were carrying Cameron and Kennedy’s bags because it was nearly time to go. They’d probably be taking Lacey and River’s bags out next.
“Are you ready for that final game?” Cameron asked, walking into the living room, with Kennedy close behind her.
“Sure.”
Lacey stood up, and just as soon as she’d given up her seat, Kennedy had taken it, which seemed so very perfect for this weekend. Lacey followed Cameron down the stairs and was surprised when she saw her sit on the couch instead of heading to the table.
“Are you okay?” she asked, sitting down next to her.
“Not really, no. But I’ll figure that out.”
“Are we not playing?” she asked.
“We can, but I honestly just wanted a minute away from everything and everyone before we have to go.”
“Oh. I can go, if you want to be alone. I thought you wanted–”
“Lacey, I didn’t mean you. I don’t want… I didn’t mean that I wanted to be away from you. That’s all I meant.”
“Are you worried about going home?”
“A little, yeah.”
“Me too. You know, I thought River and I would have the rest of our weekend. She didn’t tell me that Cal needed her there to close today. She said she had the whole weekend off.”
“Do you think she’s lying about it?” Cameron asked.
“No, River’s not like that. I think she either just forgot to tell me, or Cal asked her sometime this weekend. It doesn’t matter. I get that it’s important to her, but I was kind of hoping she’d want to prioritize me over the shop for one whole weekend. That didn’t happen, but it’s my fault, too.”
“Why?”
“Well, I didn’t exactly prioritize her this weekend, either; did I?”
Cameron nodded, looked out the window, and asked, “So, are you maybe looking for any new clients?”
“Clients?”
“Yeah. Are you looking for new clients?”
“I’m always looking for new clients. Why? Think Jessie might need one hell of a massage after this?”
Cameron laughed and replied, “I hadn’t even thought about that, but yeah, I should get her one, too.”
“Too?”
“Can I book a massage with you?”
“You want… with me?”
Cameron looked like she thought she’d said something wrong and met Lacey’s eyes.
“I meant, like, maybe a couple’s massage for Ken and me. Since this weekend didn’t exactly turn out how she and I thought, I was thinking we… could do that.”
“Oh, wow.” Lacey had not been expecting that. “Um… Sure. I have someone I sometimes work with for things like this. I mean, when I get requests for couples. It, you know, takes two of us if we do it at the same time.”
“Right. Good,” Cameron said. “Is it okay?”
“It’s my job,” she deflected. “So, sure.”
“Can I book now, or do you need to check your schedule? I’m totally free for the next… forever because I have no movies to shoot.”
“My calendar is on my phone, so I can look now if you want. I’d need to confirm with the woman I work with.”
“When are you free?”
Lacey pulled out her phone to check her calendar app, not knowing how to say no to Cameron, despite not wanting to massage her with Kennedy there, and preferably, not as a client at all.
“Looks like I can do…” She paused while she scrolled. “Friday.”
“Really? That far away?” Cameron asked. “I was hoping for something sooner.”
“Sooner? I tend to be booked out at least a couple of weeks in advance,” she said. “Are you sure you don’t just want to go to a fancy spa for celebrities? I’d have to drive to your place–”
“We can come to you. That’s not a problem.”
“Me?”
“Yeah,” Cameron told her. “If you don’t want to drive to us, we could come to you.”
“My place?”
“Or not. I don’t know. Do you not work from home ever?”
“No, but– You… could if you want. I can move some things around for the tables.”
“You don’t have to. This is probably a ridiculous idea. Sorry. Just forget I said anything.”
Cameron went to take it all back, and in that moment, Lacey’s worry hit her. She worried that she’d never see this woman again if she didn’t say yes to this, and that seemed wrong somehow. It made her stomach feel like it needed to expel her breakfast, and Lacey’s heart hurt.
“It’s fine,” she replied quickly. “No big deal. I can come to you. Maybe it could just be me, though. Would that be weird? I can massage you both at the same time, going back and forth, or one after the other. I don’t know if I can get the other masseuse if you want it on Friday.”
“But you can do Friday?”
“I have a sixty-minute slot on Friday, yeah.”
“Sold,” Cameron said with a smile. “Do I need to give you my number and stuff?”
Lacey smiled back and replied, “Yeah, so that you get the text to confirm.”
“Okay. Well, let’s do that, then.”